Russia confirmed Monday that it has deployed its tactical Iskander-M missiles along the borders with NATO countries, insisting the deployment did not violate international treaties.
"The deployment of Iskander missile battalions on the territory of the Western Military District does not violate any respective international agreements," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the defence ministry's spokesperson Igor Konashenkov as saying, Xinhua reported.
Some Western media reported earlier that Russia deployed these systems in its westernmost isolated Kaliningrad region and along its border with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The missiles deployed are said to have a range of 400 km, which thus do not fall under a category of the middle-range missiles banned by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between Moscow and Washington.
In 2011, the then Russian president Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia would station Iskander tactic missiles in Kaliningrad and southern Krasnodar region, should the US implement its phased approach to the anti-missile defence programme, which Moscow has repeatedly warned may cause "ice-age" in relations with the US.
